The Ground Beneath Her Feet: a Novel

Rushdie, Salman. The Ground Beneath Her Feet: a Novel. New York: Picador, 1999. Beginning in Bombay, 1937, this story follows the lives, music, and mythic love of Ormus Cama—a hip-swiveling, Indian lady’s man that conjures up images of Elvis—and Vina Apsara—an outspoken, capricious girl with the rich, powerful voice of a demigod. Modeled after the legend of Orpheus and taking us to the end of the 20th century, Rushdie’s novel is a bewitching, postmodern transmogrification of the classic Greek myth. Painting vivid pictures of the culture and music that has shaken our world, this is a tale that blurs the lines between fact and fiction, the virtual and the real. The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a homage to the chaos that surrounds, confounds, and shapes our lives, reminding us that stability is a tenuous (yet necessary) illusion.